Twelfth Nix of the Cook County Sick Leave Ordinance

A dozen Cook County municipalities have nixed the Cook County’s Earned Sick Leave Ordinance. Wheeling is the most recent to opt-out. The Village Board’s discussion and vote on that issue begin at 51:30 of the meeting video.

Simultaneous with opting out of the sick leave ordinance, these municipalities also opted out of the County’s ordinance increasing the minimum wage. Each municipality opted out by enacting a conflicting ordinance, i.e., generally, an ordinance requiring employers to comply with state and federal regulations on minimum wage and sick leave and negating compliance with the county ordinances on these topics.

As the Earned Sick Leave Ordinance’s July 1, 2017 effective date nears, I anticipate that numerous other municipalities will opt out. Three–Bartlett, Elk Grove and Rolling Meadows–have informally decided to opt out and will be voting on formal opt-out ordinances within the next ten days.

I have listed the Cook County “opt-outs” on the PSL Laws and Resources page of my blog, just below the link to the Cook County Ordinance.

Cook County enacted the ESL Ordinance in October 2016. Generally, it requires covered employers to allow employees to accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. My posts about that Ordinance are here and here.